AU’s Somalia effort deserves plaudit

AU’s Somalia effort deserves plaudit

The African Union’s recent military offensive in Somalia, if anything, which saw troops taking full control of the Somali port city of Kismayo must be applauded. By capturing an iron grip on the al-Shabaab Islamist group, and virtually beating

The African Union’s recent military offensive in Somalia, if anything, which saw troops taking full control of the Somali port city of Kismayo must be applauded. By capturing an iron grip on the al-Shabaab Islamist group, and virtually beating them on the battlefield in Somalia put a feather in the cap.
It is a significant achievement for a continent that is always
looking for international mediation and foreign boots to solve its
problems. It is now known that the group is no longer formidable as they
once were because of the extra ordinary military cooperation between
the AU and Somali troops.

It is moments like these that should make all Africans proud. But
thanks must also go to the United States for providing training and
military support to the African-led effort.

Somalia in a sense is a difficult region to understand. Though not as
large as the Congo, the battle there has been hot, if not the fiercest
on the continent. After the US-led failed missionin the 1990s, the
country suddenly became a no man’s land. It can be recalled that in
1992, US Marines landed in Mogadishu to bring order to the unruly place
and safeguard relief supplies.

The United States was humiliated a year after itlanded in Somalia,
andUS Army Rangers were killed when Somali militias shot down two US
helicopters. The television images thatwere beamed back to the states
were horrific and shocking to American audience and US policy
makers.TheUS finally withdrew in 1994, and washed its hands out of
African conflicts.

As Somalia descended into chaos with rival clans and tribes carving
the country for supremacy in the absence of a central government to
police the state and provide order, Somalia stop being just an internal
or regional problem. Somaliaalso became an international snag with
piracy and an Islamic faction terrorizing the people with their main
objectives to make profits.

The failed US efforts in the 1990s to bring order to Somalia,
analysts say, further hardened armed gangs, which led to this
question,‘If the great United States could not defeat the militias in
Somalia, who would…’? And so the Somalia conflict dragged on for years
with competing clans vying for control until al Shabaab came alone and
international piracy threatened not only Somalia’s neighbors, but also
the international community.

That is why the recent successful military offensive this month
against the Islamic militant group especially in Kismayo must be
applauded. A city of 180,000 people, African Union troops have done a
great job by protecting civilian lives and driving away the al Qaeda
linked al-Shabaab hardliners, whose motive to introduce Sharia Islamic
law has all but suffered Africans in Somalia.

Kismayo was a profitable bastion for the group, as they exploited the
seaside city and its port to solidify its financial base by taxing
commerce. Al Shabaab’s five years campaign of war and terrorism saw it
controlling a large swath of the country at one point, but its presence
in Somalia was not enough,but was determined to export terrorism also.

For example in 2010, the militant group was credited for the bomb
assaults on Kampala, Uganda, which killed 89 people, including an
American, and also carried out kidnappings inside Kenya. The Associated
Press reported that Kenyan security forces suspected the group carried
out attacks onthe Kenyancapital, with a blasttargeting a school and
killing one child and wounding three.

Africa becomes the latest hotspot for al-Qaeda, andits influence is
expanding on the continent. Not only is Nigeria tormented by Boko Haram,
an al Qaeda linked group, Mali has also seen the militant sect seizing
half of the country in the north. Pundits say the recent AU effort if
completed wholly in Somalia would be one less headache as conflict
resolution becomes a main agenda of the union in a new era of African
solidarity.

However, incoming African Union chair Dlamini Zuma is aware that
‘peace and security’ on the continent must be an African-led effort that
must be pursued gravely. She must also be applauded for recognizing
that the issue deserves urgency.African governments, say observers, have too much say on how the AU is
run, which often timeaffectsprogress. “In a sense the AU Commission
has even got [far] less powers than the European Union Commission, the
policies of the AU don’t derive from the AU Commission…you have to be
able to intervene with the governments in a manner that encourages
them,” says former South African president Tambo Mbeki.

Mbeki also warned that Zuma was set up for failure, given that that
the AU was a complicated place from which to operate. It is this kind of
inefficiency that has incapacitated the AU as it strives to make
manifold policy changes and impacts on the continent in behalf of its
peoples during these past years, many have said.

But as the Somalia effort shows, to solve African conflicts across
the continent means it would require a unique African solution. Too
often African governments would have to relied on western governments to
solved their internal problems, which areoften times ignored. It helps
though, that regional groupings on the continent are also taking the
lead to solving African conflicts.

The Liberian, Sierra Leonean and Ivorian crisis would not have been
resolved had Ecowas, led by Nigeria not provided bold leadership to see
that the suffering peoples of those West Africa states saw relief. Other
African regions, say an analyst are learning from the West African
experience.

Analysts also say the East African community, and especially the
countries of Burundi, Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya were determined that
the Islamic group’s exportation of terrorism was eminent as it grew in
strength and needed to be curbed. The camaraderie between the AU troops
seen recently should herald a new paradigm on the continent to resolving
African wars.

The African Union after a lackluster10 years must show a
determination especially with a new leadership in place with the former
South African home affairs minister at the helm.

“I think as Africans we have to have solutions to our problems, they
may not be easy solutions but we have to find those solutions,” Zuma
remarked recently. She also said “The AU believes that the issue of
development cannot be addressed when there is war.”

The AU must be encouraged to initiate a continent-wide tax policy in
the coming years, if it is serious about carrying out the many projects
it has earmarked, say experts.

Nonetheless, the many constraints faced by the AU and African
govenemnts, and the recent Somalia peacekeeping efforts, which are
currently being resolved by the union must be commended. It was an
exceptional African effort that must not go unnoticed.